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In Christmas in my Heart, Catherine Palmer pens a heart stirring story about restoring family. Claire Ross returns home to Buffalo, Missouri, after her fiancé dumps her a month before the wedding. Hoping to spread Christmas cheer, she takes a gift to her great-aunt, someone everyone in the family disowned years before. She no sooner steps on the porch than her great-aunt shoots at her. When the police chief shows up, he issues orders that forces Claire to spend time with her aunt or remove the aunt from the home. Can Claire reach through her aunt’s toughness to touch the wounded spirit inside? Will Claire find a reason to keep from becoming as bitter as her aunt?
Christmas Moon was written by Gail Gaymer Martin. Rose Danby follows Paul Stewart to Minnesota to care for his four year old twins. But as long days follow long nights, Rose begins to rethink her decision. Why is she spending all day alone with the twins, with no hope of meeting the man of her dreams and having her own children? She starts to think of returning to California, to find the answer to her prayers. Will she be able to keep the job she loves and find love too?
THAT CHRISTMAS FEELING is a wonderful Christmas anthology by two talented authors. I quickly grew to love the characters in Christmas in my Heart. They were very well developed and I was quickly drawn into the story. If THAT CHRISTMAS FEELING were written by Ms. Palmer alone, it would be a book for the keeper shelf. However, I found Christmas Moon lacking. The characters were flat. I couldn’t get into that novella at all, and kept putting the story down. However, Ms. Martin does know all the writing rules and has them down-pat. The story is charming, but would have been good if the characters had been better developed.
Pick up THAT CHRISTMAS FEELING for a dose of Holiday cheer which will leave you feeling ready to look for the perfect tree and make dozens of decorated cookies. THAT CHRISTMAS FEELING will be an excellent book to curl up in front of the fire with.
Reviewed by Laura V. Hilton
for The Road to Romance
July 17, 2004
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